All-round education is key
Jul 04, 2009
RECENTLY, I have been exercising my mind with the issue of education. My grandparents never saw a blackboard but made sure my father and mother did. It’s not clear why they pushed my parents to go to school. My parents benefited from bursaries and free
By Paul Busharizi
RECENTLY, I have been exercising my mind with the issue of education. My grandparents never saw a blackboard but made sure my father and mother did. It’s not clear why they pushed my parents to go to school. My parents benefited from bursaries and free tertiary education, allowing them to stay in school longer.
From an early age, my dad worked out that if he studied enough to be a chief, he could ride a bicycle to work, while my mum saw that an independent income was useful in charting her own course in a patrimonial society.
Of course with a better education came better income compared to their less educated village mates. Their education curriculum, which has remained unlargely unchanged to this date, was designed to churn out white-collar workers. So at the end of their studies, they joined a receptive workforce – I hear employers would recruit before final exams at university, throwing in free accommodation, furniture and car loans to win the best students.
And then Idi Amin came along and threw a spanner into the economy’s works, creating an environment for which our well-schooled clerks were unprepared.
Meanwhile, the education curriculum remained largely unchanged as our part of the world moved through the post-election excitement, the oil crisis, the coffee boom, the cold war, the information age and globalisation and now, the conceptual age.
The economy is just getting back on its feet and this has come with the realisation that the workplace has changed and what we learn in school is of little relevance in the modern day workplace.
The best public education no longer gives your child an advantage on the global stage.
Our private schools are not faring any better, only providing a more intensive environment in which to turn out As in an archaic education system.
The recent release of the top paid 100 executives in Uganda was a good indicator of the trends. More than ever in our history, a foreign education and/or previous work experience abroad is critical. This means our education system is not holding up its weight and our local companies are not providing the necessary work experience employers are looking for.
But now we have the option of the international school. We, from the old school, turn up our noses at their products -“They do not get good grades,†we sniff. I believe the poor grades are more a function of poor motivation than inadequate teaching. These schools offer a broad and flexible curriculum –“What kind of combination is English, French and Maths?†we snigger.
That the system is not locked into outdated formats in its timetable design or subject selection opens the students to a new range of options. But this “futuristic†education costs several hundred to thousands of dollars a term, only affordable by the most monied of our society. Education is the great social leveler.
My parents’ generation are testament to that. Education helped peasant children equal and surpass the offspring of the titled and landed elite. But now with the falling standards of public education a result of an outdated curriculum, inadequate budgetary allocations and thieving officials, the average Ugandan child is getting a raw deal - slogging odd hours and even weekends to excel at an education that has been obsolete for years.
Meanwhile, his richer cousins are getting a well-rounded, more current education that is preparing them to compete in regional and international job markets.
Aren’t we setting ourselves up for a society in which the rich get richer and the poor get nothing? Yes we are.
Because of a weak societal organisation and short sighted, self serving leadership a century or two ago, the slave traders run around harvesting the best of Africa’s youth. This weakened our societies leaving us open to eventual colonisation.
Today, by depriving the majority of our children a chance to fulfill their potential, we are repeating the errors of our forefathers by spawning an uncompetitive labour force, living us open to exploitation and eternal servitude.
pbusharizi@newvision.co.ug
RECENTLY, I have been exercising my mind with the issue of education. My grandparents never saw a blackboard but made sure my father and mother did. It’s not clear why they pushed my parents to go to school. My parents benefited from bursaries and free tertiary education, allowing them to stay in school longer.
From an early age, my dad worked out that if he studied enough to be a chief, he could ride a bicycle to work, while my mum saw that an independent income was useful in charting her own course in a patrimonial society.
Of course with a better education came better income compared to their less educated village mates. Their education curriculum, which has remained unlargely unchanged to this date, was designed to churn out white-collar workers. So at the end of their studies, they joined a receptive workforce – I hear employers would recruit before final exams at university, throwing in free accommodation, furniture and car loans to win the best students.
And then Idi Amin came along and threw a spanner into the economy’s works, creating an environment for which our well-schooled clerks were unprepared.
Meanwhile, the education curriculum remained largely unchanged as our part of the world moved through the post-election excitement, the oil crisis, the coffee boom, the cold war, the information age and globalisation and now, the conceptual age.
The economy is just getting back on its feet and this has come with the realisation that the workplace has changed and what we learn in school is of little relevance in the modern day workplace.
The best public education no longer gives your child an advantage on the global stage.
Our private schools are not faring any better, only providing a more intensive environment in which to turn out As in an archaic education system.
The recent release of the top paid 100 executives in Uganda was a good indicator of the trends. More than ever in our history, a foreign education and/or previous work experience abroad is critical. This means our education system is not holding up its weight and our local companies are not providing the necessary work experience employers are looking for.
But now we have the option of the international school. We, from the old school, turn up our noses at their products -“They do not get good grades,†we sniff. I believe the poor grades are more a function of poor motivation than inadequate teaching. These schools offer a broad and flexible curriculum –“What kind of combination is English, French and Maths?†we snigger.
That the system is not locked into outdated formats in its timetable design or subject selection opens the students to a new range of options. But this “futuristic†education costs several hundred to thousands of dollars a term, only affordable by the most monied of our society. Education is the great social leveler.
My parents’ generation are testament to that. Education helped peasant children equal and surpass the offspring of the titled and landed elite. But now with the falling standards of public education a result of an outdated curriculum, inadequate budgetary allocations and thieving officials, the average Ugandan child is getting a raw deal - slogging odd hours and even weekends to excel at an education that has been obsolete for years.
Meanwhile, his richer cousins are getting a well-rounded, more current education that is preparing them to compete in regional and international job markets.
Aren’t we setting ourselves up for a society in which the rich get richer and the poor get nothing? Yes we are.
Because of a weak societal organisation and short sighted, self serving leadership a century or two ago, the slave traders run around harvesting the best of Africa’s youth. This weakened our societies leaving us open to eventual colonisation.
Today, by depriving the majority of our children a chance to fulfill their potential, we are repeating the errors of our forefathers by spawning an uncompetitive labour force, living us open to exploitation and eternal servitude.
pbusharizi@newvision.co.ug